Google beats Twitter in hiring war; spying charges in spotlight

Allegations of spying on its own employees and managing to get confidential high-level information from Twitter leaked out are flying thick and fast as technology rivals are raising stakes in a bitter poaching war.

There have been at least two high profile cases recently of Google successfully retaining its key product staff by offering multi-million dollar stock options even as they were considering a Twitter offer.

However, TechCrunch reported that there has also been at least one case of Google making a counter offer to an employee before he or she told Google about the Twitter offer. This was probably because Google had a mole within Twitter who could leak out to Google high-level confidential information regarding hiring.

TechCrunch reported that Google recently offered $100 million to product staff Neal Mohan and $50 million to another product employee Sunder Pichai, in stock options.

Tech websites now call on Google employees to reach out to recruiters at Twitter, Facebook and the like. There could very well be a windfall waiting for them. But some observers also feel that Google may be playing the wrong card as dishing out fabulous pre-emptive offers to staff will only prompt many more to look to rival companies.